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Flashdance movie storyline. Alexandra “Alex” Owens (Jennifer Beals) is an eighteen-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who lives with her dog Grunt in a converted warehouse. Although she aspires to become a professional dancer, she has no formal education, and works as an burlesque dancer by night at Mawby’s, a neighborhood bar and grill which hosts a nightly cabaret.
Lacking family, Alex forms bonds with her coworkers at Mawby’s, some of whom also aspire to greater artistic achievements. Jeanie (Sunny Johnson), a waitress, is training to be a figure skater, while her boyfriend, short-order cook Richie (Kyle T. Heffner), wishes to become a stand up comic.
One night, Alex catches the eye of customer Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), the owner of the steel mill where she works. After learning that Alex is one of his employees, Nick begins to pursue her on the job, though Alex turns down his advances at first. Alex is also approached by Johnny C. (Lee Ving), who wants Alex to dance at his nearby strip club, Zanzibar.
After seeking counsel from her mentor Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), a retired ballerina, Alex attempts to apply to the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. Alex becomes intimidated by the scope of the application process, which includes listing all prior dance experience and education, and she leaves without applying. Leaving Mawby’s one evening, Richie and Alex are assaulted by Johnny C. and his bodyguard, Cecil. Nick intervenes, and after taking Alex home, the two begin a relationship.
At a skating competition in which she is competing, Jeanie falls twice during her performance and sits defeated on the ice and has to be helped away. Later, feeling she will never achieve her dreams, and after Richie has left Pittsburgh to try to become a comic in Los Angeles, Jeanie begins going out with Johnny C. and works for him as a Zanzibar stripper. Finding out that she is dancing nude, Alex drags her out while she protests and cries.
After seeing Nick with a woman at the ballet one night, Alex throws a rock through one of the windows of his house, only to discover that it was his ex-wife (Belinda Bauer) whom he was meeting for a charity function. Alex and Nick reconcile, and she gains the courage to apply for entrance to the Conservatory. Nick uses his connections with the arts council to get Alex an audition. Alex is furious with Nick, since she did not get the opportunity based on her own merit and decides not to go through with the audition. Seeing the results of others’ failed dreams and after the sudden death of Hanna, Alex becomes despondent about her future, but finally decides to go through with the audition.
Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films, including Top Gun (1986), Simpson and Bruckheimer’s most famous production.
Flashdance opened to negative reviews by professional critics, but was a surprise box office success, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States. It had a worldwide box-office gross of more than $100 million. Its soundtrack spawned several hit songs, among them “Maniac” performed by Michael Sembello and the Academy Award–winning “Flashdance… What a Feeling”, performed by Irene Cara, which was written for the film.
Flashdance (1983)
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Starring: Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala, Sunny Johnson, Kyle T. Heffner, Lee Ving, Ron Karabatsos, Belinda Bauer, Micole Mercurio, Lucy Lee Flippin, Cynthia Rhodes
Screenplay by: Thomas Hedley Jr., Joe Eszterhas
Production Design by: Charles Rosen
Cinematography by: Donald Peterman
Film Editing by: Walt Mulconery, Bud S. Smith
Costume Design by: Michael Kaplan
Set Decoration by: Marvin March
Music by: Giorgio Moroder
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: April 15, 1983
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